For example, genome sequencers are now available that can
produce more than 4 terabytes of data per run. This is only the
beginning, as companies are developing sequencer advances with the
potential of producing upwards of a billion bases of sequence every
five minutes. Putting this in perspective, this translates to
sequencing the human genome in less than 4 hours (sequencing the
human genome the first time took more than 10 years!).

The storage, management, and analysis of today’s enormous
data flows requires substantial computing power and immense
mass-storage capacity. The same is true in many other areas of
science and engineering. Accordingly, access to advanced
computational resources by researchers from a wide variety of
fields (from traditional sciences and engineering to
medical research and the humanities/social sciences) is no longer a
luxury, but rather a necessity if they hope to stay at the
forefront of their respective field, advance knowledge and improve
the quality of life.

Fortunately, through the Center for Computational Research
(CCR), UB is
well-positioned to meet the computing and data analytics needs of
its researchers. CCR’s extensive computing facilities
currently include a Linux cluster with more than 8,000 processor
cores, and about 600 Terabytes of high performance storage, which
will soon undergo an upgrade to more than 3,000 Terabytes (3
Petabytes).

In total, CCR currently has more than 100 Tflops of peak
performance compute capacity and, by way of comparison, its
computers can do in one day what a high-end PC would take more than
25 years to do. CCR’s computers run 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. Last year alone, more than 2 million jobs ran on CCR
resources by UB faculty and their students.

This number will grow dramatically over the next several years
as CCR helps support the newly formed Buffalo Institute for
Genomics (BIG) and Data Analytics, which was created in 2014 to
provide informatics and biomedical expertise to advance genomic
medicine. This is part of a $100 million collaboration
between the University at Buffalo and the NY Genome Center in New
York City.

UB was selected as co-lead for the effort because of its
expertise in high performance computing, combined with recognized
national leadership in genomics and analysis of patient data.
To help support BIG and the NY Genome Center, CCR will
substantially expand its high performance computing and storage
infrastructure.

Join the conversation!

About the Author

Dr. Thomas Furlani was appointed Director of the Center
for Computational Research in 2006. He served as Associate
Director of CCR from 1998-2006 and also served as the Interim Chief
Information Officer for UB Information Technology from
2010-2013.